An Important Small Torah Scroll from Italy, [17th century]

A rare Sephardic witness to the use of unusual letter forms.

In addition to its small dimensions and periodic calligraphic flourishes, the present scroll is distinguished by its partial observance of the custom, mentioned already by Rabbi Moses Maimonides (1038-1204) in his authoritative Jewish legal code, Mishneh torah, to “be careful about... the unusual letters... as copied by one scribe after his predecessor, going back generations” (Hilkhot tefillin mezuzah ve-sefer torah 7:8). This is particularly the case in the scroll’s first column and the sections containing the Ten Commandments (Ex. 20 and Deut. 5), where the scribe added curlicues to several letters lamed and extra descending lines to some letters peh. The inclusion of such forms gradually fell out of practice in Sephardic communities over the course of the seventeenth century (though it continued among Ashkenazim well into the nineteenth century). This scroll, which has been carbon-dated with a high degree of probability to the mid-seventeenth century, is thus likely among the last copied in the Sephardic geocultural sphere to feature these otiyyot meshunnot.

Sotheby’s is grateful to Yehiel Tzeitkin for providing information that aided in the cataloging of this Torah scroll.

Physical Description

Scroll of 52 membranes (10 3/4 x approx. 770 in.; 273 x approx. 19,553 mm) made of goatskin parchment; written in Italian Sephardic script in (light) brown ink with two to seven columns per membrane (membrane widths ranging from approx. 5 1/8 to 27 1/8 in.; 130 to 691 mm) (total: 210 columns) and forty-eight or forty-nine lines per column; membrane 13 written without tagin; some later darkening of letters and corrections intermittently throughout; horizontally and vertically ruled in hardpoint on the recto; prickings often visible at each end of a membrane; justification of lines via dilation or contraction of letters (average justification: 8 5/8 x 3 1/8 in.; 220 x 80 mm). The Songs of the Sea (Ex. 15:1-19; membrane 17) and of Moses (Deut. 32:1-43; membrane 52) are laid out to look like brickwork (ariah al gabbei levenah and ariah al gabbei ariah, respectively); ascenders of letters lamed often extend into the empty space above them; some letters are flourished at their summits. Three membranes (22-23, 25), comprising Ex. 32:10b-36:5a and Lev. 1:11b-6:5a, replaced probably in Italy in the late 18th or early 19th century; scattered staining (see, esp., membranes 14, 35, 47); minor creasing; episodic abrasion of text; intermittent short tears in upper and lower margins not affecting text; periodic natural small holes in parchment not affecting text; short tear in column 1 affecting a few words; minor damage in upper margin of column 2 affecting a few words and in upper margins of columns 5-6 not affecting text; sinews connecting membranes 9-10, 12-13, 25-26, 45-46, 48-49 beginning to loosen at foot; those connecting membranes 10-11, 18-19, 43-44 beginning to loosen at head; minor damage in first column of membrane 14, between membranes 16-17 at foot, and near left outer edge of membrane 22. Housed in a modern, handmade, hinged, red velvet-lined wooden carrying case (12 1/2 x 4 3/4 x 5 in.; 315 x 122 x 129 mm).